Business

Polaroid's Fotobar Stores Will Let You Print Photos From Your Phone

Polaroid is launching retail shops called Fotobars that let people come in and print digital photos stored on their phones.

The first store, set to open this February, will be located in Delray Beach, Fla.; store openings in New York, Las Vegas and Boston will follow. In total, Polaroid plans to open "at least ten" Fotobars in 2013.

In practice, Fotobars will work like this: Customers will be able to select the photos on their camera phones (including photos on Facebook, Instagram, Picasa and "several other" platforms), then wirelessly beam them to one of the bar-top workstations.

Besides standard paper photos, customers can get their photos printed on other material, such as metal, acrylic, wood, bamboo and canvas. These will be handcrafted and shipped to customers worldwide in "just a few days," according to a release.

"There are currently around 1.5 billion pictures taken every single day, and that number continues to grow in tandem with the popularity and quality of camera phones. Unfortunately, even the very best of those pictures rarely ever escape the camera phone with which they were taken to be put on display around our homes and offices," Warren Struhl, Fotobar's founder and CEO, said in a statement. "Polaroid Fotobar stores are going to change all of that."

We'll find out more about Fotobars at this year's Consumer Electronics Association (CES) trade show, which is held Jan. 8 to 11 in Las Vegas.

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